I was lucky to meet some very interesting traditional First Nation people this summer. I always learn so much when my walk leads to someone with a lot of knowledge about my people and their traditions and culture.
I sat down with a friend the other night on a lawn swing after working around the yard. We watched the sun fall behind the pine trees on this cool fall evening. The weather was barely warm enough for us to linger on happily swinging. The swing had two opposing benches and a small table for drinks. The model we were using was a type I see in northern Quebec more often. Instead of the overhead swinging mechanism, the benches sat on two rollers set on grooved rails under the swing.
I got good news this weekend thanks to my visit to the Diabetes Expo in Timmins. The Wabun Tribal Council health department set up an information booth at the event with a community health nurse who provided on the spot glucose level blood tests for visitors. As an aboriginal person I am aware of the high rate of this disease with First Nation people and to top it off I have family members who are living with diabetes so I had plenty of reason to get tested.
A presenter at the annual Diabetes Expo in Timmins Oct. 1 and 2 had some dire warnings for students attending his workshop.
“This is the first generation of Canadian children that will not outlive their parents,” said Chris Johnson, who also has diabetes. “This is the first time in history that this will happen and part of it is due to an inactive lifestyle.”
To counter diabetes, he said it’s important to make sure kids are active.
“We have to work like hell to get kids up and off their butts and to be physically active.”
A lot of good things have happened to me over the past 14 years.
When I first met my best friend Mike, he introduced me to a life of sobriety. My time before this was difficult. Now that I think back on it, I was numb all the time and I felt disconnected. I had always promised myself that I would not fall into a life of addictions but I just didn’t know how to do it.
I have a lot of great family and friends and I had a good life as a child. However, most of my memories have to do with alcohol and drugs.
I took the telescope out a few weeks ago to view Jupiter as our two worlds passed close to each other. The close orbit of this large planet was all over the news and I took time out that evening to see if I could actually view anything. I didn't think much of it at the time because a full moon obscured the night sky with a blue glow which normally meant that it is difficult to see any distant object in space. I set up my telescope and pointed it at a bright light that I had determined was Jupiter, the giant gas planet overhead.
Sometimes life does not seem fair. That's how I felt when I heard the news about my friend Audrey Allaire on November 4. I was shocked to hear that she had passed away at the young age of 44. All I could think of was that this was really unjust.
In November 1993, a group of eight students from my high school English class in Attawapiskat agreed to collaborate on a Christmas play. We wrote our own script which we presented at a combined elementary school / high school Christmas concert at the JR Nakogee Elementary school gymnasium. Our group of eight students from Vezina Secondary School of differing age groups and grades were excited to take part. The project was led by our English teacher Rhonda McKay, a bright young woman who started out her teaching career in Attawapiskat.
Drug addiction has always been part of my life. One of the most terrible drugs that has affected the lives of my people is alcohol. However, there were also illegal drugs that were part of the culture of addictive substances. I grew up watching more or less normal people I knew transform into desperate beings who only lived for their next high. Our elders were shocked at the changes in the lives of our young people and they blamed the non-Native culture to the south.
An early winter storm has subsided and I am on my way to the local outdoor hockey rink. The bitter breeze is still pushing from the north and grainy wisps of snow dance around my heavy boots. It is the winter of 1992 here in Attawapiskat and I am bored on a grey overcast Saturday morning looking for something to do. I have my favourite hockey stick with me and a plan of practising my slap shot. There are few people out and I am looking forward to spending my time alone at the rink. A powerful wind has blown falling snow into huge drifts all around the community.
There is this new duck on the lake here at my far north wilderness camp. I am sure that Shee-sheep, the Cree word for ‘duck’ is a mallard and so I decided...
I have been working in media as an Indigenous journalist, columnist and videographer for more than a quarter century at this point. This has been such an...